Re: Was this about spending? [was: "WSWS: Socialism andthedefense of public education"

Mark Lause <markalause <at> gmail.com>
2010-01-01 00:26:00 GMT

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Fine. My mistake.
But what you're asking here seems to me best answered by Brother Bustelo.
Personally, I don't have kids, mostly because I went into teaching and
couldn't get and secure a job until it was way too late for us to be chasing
around after little people. That's probably for the better.
But I can certainly understand the frustration with the system of people who
are serious about getting their kids educated. To me, the most important
thing has to do with parental involvement and a parental appreciation of
education. If you have that, it'll maximize the chances that your kids will
be able to get an education in the school system. If you don't have that,
it's far less likely to happen anywhere.
ML
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By Paul Le Blanc
This is certainly an ideal moment for people to engage with one of the
greatest revolutionaries of modern times. Robert Service makes exciting
claims: that his searches among archival holdings shed new light on the
subject, and that he offers, for the first time, an objective account of
this symbol of revolutionary Marxism. But in more ways than one, the
book he has produced is not what it claims to be. In fact, what many
reviewers have enthused over, in their discussions of Service’s book, is
the demolition of what they (and Service) consider to be a myth. As
novelist and journalist Robert Harris approvingly comments in London’s
/Sunday Times/, “50 years after the last full-scale biography of Trotsky
in English, Robert Service has turned his attention to this myth – and
has, effectively, assassinated Trotsky all over again.”
Full review at http://links.org.au/node/1440
Subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373
You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism
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Killed CIA agents organized drone attacks

Louis Proyect <lnp3 <at> panix.com>
2010-01-01 13:06:16 GMT

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123100541.html
CIA base attacked in Afghanistan supported airstrikes against al-Qaeda,
Taliban
By Joby Warrick and Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 1, 2010; A01
The CIA base attacked by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan this week was
at the heart of a covert program overseeing strikes by the agency's
remote-controlled aircraft along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border,
officials familiar with the installation said Thursday.
The assailant, wearing an explosives belt under his clothes, apparently
was allowed to enter the small base after offering to become an
informant, according to two former agency officials briefed on the
attack. The CIA declined to comment on the circumstances behind the
incident, and it was unclear whether the bomber chose the base because
of its role in supporting CIA airstrikes against top al-Qaeda and
Taliban leaders in the region.
The blast early Wednesday evening in the eastern province of Khost
killed seven CIA officers and contractors, including the base chief, and
seriously wounded six others in what intelligence officials described as
a devastating blow to one of the agency's key intelligence hubs for
counterterrorism operations. It was the deadliest single day for the

2009 Movies wrap-up, part two

Louis Proyect <lnp3 <at> panix.com>
2010-01-01 18:28:44 GMT

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Reviews of:
"Thirst", a Korean movie about a priest who turns into a vampire
"Sin Nombre", a mixture of "El Norte" and "City of God" (immigrants and
gangsters, in other words)
"The Men who Stare at Goats", a satire based on the army's experiments
with ESP
read full review:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/2009-movies-wrap-up-part-two/
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Re: Manure

brad bauerly <bbauerly <at> gmail.com>
2010-01-01 19:39:00 GMT

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> Greg wrote:
>
> This is a tangential point, but speaking of the "direct hand of the
> state in the construction of markets," the USA has not only subsidized
> large-scale agribusiness concerns at home, it has also used food aid
> as a weapon abroad to open up markets for the export of agricultural
> commodities, with dire consequences both for its negative impact on
> local agricultural practices and markets, but also for the long-term
> health of its citizens.
>
I don't think food aid is in anyway tangential and I think food aid is a
huge part of how the US constructed its global empire (this is the basic
thesis of my still in progress dissertation). However, I don't think the US
funded food aid simply to help US agribusiness sell products abroad. The
more important aspect was how food aid displaced local systems of food
production and consumption and connected food systems into global markets.
Remember that over 40% of Marshall Plan aid was food or ag related. That
wasn't done to help US food corps but to connect and 'modernize' European
food production with US and to reduce the cost of labour reproduction and
undermine socialist politics. This was then repeated outside of Europe,
first in South Korea and Japan and later across the global south. There are
great books from the 1970's on PL-480, however, don't pay much attention to
the role it played/s in reconstructing social relations.
>